Kyckr’s capital raise gets boost from WiseTech founder and billionaire Australian tech investor Richard White

Global regulatory technology business Kyckr (ASX: KYK) has completed the second tranche of a $5.2 million capital raising exercise, backed by cornerstone investor and billionaire entrepreneur Richard White.

The $3.1 million tranche was raised through the issue of 46 million fully paid ordinary shares to institutional and sophisticated investors, and will be added to the 32.35 million shares issued in the first tranche to accelerate the company’s global commercialisation activities.

The exercise was led by Mr White, who participated in both tranches and now has a 19.6% shareholding in Kyckr.

WiseTech connection

Mr White is the founder and chief executive of Australian logistics software solutions giant WiseTech Global (ASX: WTC) which has a market cap of $11 billion and over 12,000 clients worldwide.

Since listing in 2016, WiseTech shares have soared more than five-fold due to strong growth in revenue and acquisitions worldwide.

Mr White retains a 53% stake in the company.

Kyckr chief executive Ian Henderson said his addition to Kyckr’s shareholder base will strengthen the company’s market position.

“It is particularly rewarding [to us] that someone of Richard’s calibre has become a strategic investor which validates the strong appeal in [our] technology and business proposition,” he said.

Digital platform

Kyckr is the developer of the Kyckr.com digital platform which has seen early growth signs and 9000 new unique visitors since being re-launched as a new and improved product in May.

Powered by Microsoft Azure, the revamp features an all-new mobile responsive design centred around client needs and behaviours with “quick search” dropdowns, improved administration features and dashboard functionality, and increased information on Kyckr’s range of compliance solutions.

Key to the design is the real-time Know-Your-Customer (KYC) feature which is able to verify the identity of clients to prevent money laundering and financial crime.

“We are confident in our ability to capitalise on opportunities in the ever-growing regulatory technology industry as anti-money laundering procedures are increasingly required by financial institutions to reduce risk surrounding customer identification and monitoring,” Kyckr executive chairman Benny Higgins told investors earlier this month.

“There is now greater demand for automated KYC intelligence which eliminates the need for time-consuming manual regulatory compliance checks [and] we are confident in our ability to accelerate growth, driven by global regulatory demands.”

Accelerated revenue

Kyckr.com is believed to be is one of the largest platforms of its kind in the world with over 200 registries in 120 countries, enabling blue-chip customers such as Bloomberg, Citigroup and IBM to instantly find company profiles, credit reports and filings.

Since the platform’s inception, Kyckr has recorded accelerated revenue with a 55% growth in new registrations in 2018 compared to 2017, and a 43% growth in the first quarter of 2019.

The company’s online revenue has also increased consistently year on year, up 64% in the first half of 2019 over the previous corresponding period.

At mid-afternoon, shares in Kyckr were up 66.67% to $0.175, while shares in WiseTech Global were up 1.65% to $35.750.